Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami visits flood-hit areas, assures compensation for crop

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Sunday assured compensation for crop loss due to the floods caused by heavy discharge of water from the state's dams and permanent houses for the affected people.

The dams, including Mettur and Bhavanisagar, have been discharging huge volumes of water in view of continuing high inflows from Karnataka reservoirs including Krishnarajasagar.

The discharge has resulted in inundation of a slew of villages and submergence of standing crops along the banks of Cauvery, (its tributary Bhavani in Erode) in several districts of Tamil Nadu.

As the level in Vaigai dam in Madurai district touched 69 feet (maximum 71 feet), water was released from it today, officials said.

Around 3,100 cusecs of water was being released from the dam, they added.
The officials said catchment areas of the dam were receiving heavy rains and the inflow into the dam was 3,333 cusecs and added a flood alert has been issued to five districts including Theni, Madurai, and Sivaganga.

"Presently, inflow into Bhavanisagar dam is 21,000 cusecs and discharge is 3,000 cusecs. From the Mettur reservoir the outflow is 2 lakh cusecs and the inflow is about 1.95 lakh cusecs," Palaniswami said after inspecting flood-hit areas here.

Speaking to reporters after inspecting affected areas at Pallipalayam in Namakkal district, the Chief Minister said the inflow at Bhavanisagar dam has gone up to 31,000 cusecs and discharge stepped up to 15,000 cusecs.

"It will be 2.15 lakh cusecs when the waters reach Pallipalayam from Bhavanisagar and Mettur (about 2 lakh cusecs) reservoirs," he said.

To a query on water not reaching the tail-end regions of Cauvery delta despite excessive inflows, he said farmers in such areas will get water in one or two days and added that a team of officials were working on it.

On linking intra-state rivers, he said the state government was studying it and added that check dams would be constructed wherever possible for optimal utilisation of water.

"The government will give compensation for crop damage after the flood waters recede," he said.

In Erode district, 47 villages and 609.69 hectares of crops, including horticulture, have been affected.

Those residing along the banks of the rivers Bhavani and Cauvery have requested safe, permanent houses and government would take steps to fulfil their request, Palaniswami said in reply to a question about the representation from the affected people.

As many as 7,832 people have been sheltered in relief centres in Erode district, where 263 houses were fully damaged, he said.

A flood alert was sounded for 13 districts, including the Cauvery delta regions, besides Madurai and Theni as the Periyar and Vaigai dams too received copious inflows.

Textiles Minister O S Manian inspected flood-hit villages close to the banks of Coleroon river, a branch of Cauvery in Nagapattinam district by going around in a boat.

Revenue minister R B Udayakumar, who visited flood-affected areas in Kanyakumari district, said the government was taking enough steps to ensure that there was no drinking water shortage in the flood-hit areas.

Meanwhile, Municipal Administration minister, S P Velumani visited Valparai in Coimbatore district, which bore the brunt of the rains for the last one week and distributed relief materials.

Several truck loads of relief materials were despatched from a number of district collectorates including Tiruvannamalai on Sunday.

AIADMK top leader and Deputy Chief Minister O Paneerselvam flagged off six truck loads of relief materials to Kerala on behalf of his party's Theni unit.

Mathrubhumi's (a Malayalam daily) Chennai edition, RSS affiliated Seva Bharathi and volunteer groups were among those who have sent relief materials.

A hotel in Shencottah in Tamil Nadu close to the Kerala border offered free food to those arriving from the neighbouring State as a mark of solidarity.